Greg Bouwer
IINZ
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has announced a campaign targeting New Zealand retailers who stock SodaStream, accusing the company of “complicity with Israeli genocide, apartheid and land grabbing”. These baseless and inflammatory claims are part of a tired and toxic playbook – one that has long abandoned any serious concern for Palestinians in favour of vilifying Israel at all costs.
SodaStream, in reality, is a model of coexistence, sustainability, and cross-cultural employment. It is everything PSNA claims to support – yet their obsession with boycotting Israel overrides reason, evidence, and even the wellbeing of the very Palestinians they claim to defend.
PSNA: Harming Palestinian Workers for Political Theatre
SodaStream’s original plant was located in Mishor Adumim, an industrial zone in the West Bank where Palestinians and Israelis worked side by side. Over 500 Palestinian workers were employed there – earning wages, benefits, and conditions far superior to those available under the Palestinian Authority. Some had worked there for years, building relationships with Israeli colleagues and supporting extended families.
When the BDS campaign – cheered on by PSNA – forced SodaStream to relocate in 2015, hundreds of Palestinian families lost their livelihoods overnight. Workers pleaded with activists not to shut the plant down, calling it “a model of coexistence”. BDS ignored them. So did PSNA.
For an organisation that claims to stand for “Palestinian rights”. PSNA’s stance is not just hypocritical – it’s cruel. This is not solidarity. It’s sabotage.
Deceitful Narratives and Fabricated “Genocide”
PSNA’s press release also recycles its usual slurs, accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ – allegations so unmoored from fact they border on slander. There is no genocide occurring in Gaza. What’s happening is a war, tragically sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre and perpetuated by a terrorist regime that hides behind civilians and turns hospitals and schools into weapons depots.
The ‘apartheid’ lie is equally indefensible. Israel’s Arab citizens – 20 per cent of the population – vote, serve in parliament and the judiciary, run hospitals, and represent Israel overseas. That PSNA continues to compare this to apartheid South Africa is a gross insult to the actual victims of apartheid – and an insult to the intelligence of the New Zealand public.
Twisting Bedouin Rights into Anti-Israel Propaganda
PSNA’s latest attack claims that SodaStream’s current factory in the Negev (Naqab) is built on “traditional Bedouin land”. This is a deliberate distortion. The Bedouin are Israeli citizens. Many are employed by the very factory PSNA now wants to boycott. The Israeli government has invested millions in Bedouin communities – including education, housing, and employment – precisely to integrate and uplift these citizens.
Once again, PSNA is willing to sacrifice the dignity and livelihood of Arab citizens in Israel if it helps them demonise the Jewish state. Their obsession blinds them to reality, and in their rush to shout ‘colonialism’, they erase the agency of Arabs who choose to work with – not against – their fellow Israelis.
A Movement of Double Standards and Destruction
Let’s be clear: PSNA isn’t targeting SodaStream because it’s unethical – they’re targeting it because it’s Israeli. This has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with hate. If PSNA cared about indigenous rights or human rights, they might campaign against companies using Uyghur slave labour in China, or against regimes like Iran or Syria. But those issues don’t scratch their ideological itch.
Instead, they demand purity tests for Israeli Jews that no other people on Earth are subjected to – and they do it in the name of ‘equality’.
Conclusion: PSNA Doesn’t Speak for Palestinians – and It Never Has
The SodaStream boycott is not a principled stand. It is a performance. It sacrifices real Palestinian livelihoods for political theatre. It spreads lies to the New Zealand public. And it shows that PSNA’s core mission is not justice for Palestinians, but punishment for Israelis.
New Zealanders should not be fooled by this campaign. Boycotting coexistence, economic opportunity, and shared industry does not advance peace – it poisons it.
The real stain isn’t on SodaStream. It’s on PSNA.
This article was originally published by the Israel Institute of New Zealand.
